Battlefield 2 has sales of over 2,250,000 copies worldwide, as of July 2006.

The game gained widespread approval from critics, receiving an aggregate score of 91% from 55 reviews, including five stars out of five from large reviewing organizations Yahoo! Games, GameSpy, X-play and Computer Gaming World. PC Gamer awarded it 94%, stating, "Its finely tuned maps and balanced gameplay prove that you CAN improve on perfection," and honored it as Game of the Year. GameSpot rated the game 9.3 out of 10 claiming that "when you experience Battlefield 2 like it's meant to be played, with everyone working together and using real-time voice chat, the game quickly becomes unlike anything else that you've played before."

Some of the lower scores were reactions to the large amount of bugs and glitches in the initial release. For example, Gaming Nexus (who awarded the game an 8.7 out of 10) reported, "I’ve had many cool experiences playing it and a lot of 'did I just see that' moments but all of that is crapped on by the bugs and quirks in the game.".] Many players have complained that bugs have remained unfixed or were replaced with worse bugs due to poorly tested game patches. As of 1.41, most of the fatal errors (crash-to-desktop) have been fixed, and few browser, server and balance problems remain. However, 1.41 will not install on many Computers, giving a "patching failed" error.

Games Radar approved of the game, awarding a 90%, but added a disclaimer that the gaming experience is best "if your machine is up to it". GameSpot's review agreed with the high system requirements noting that "the load times are one of the biggest gripes that we have, as you will spend quite a bit of time waiting for a game to start up, even on high-end machines...also a bit demanding in the hardware department."